Essay on Internal Threats to Democracy

Abstract

The article calls for a more crit­ical and also louder voice from contemporary political philosophy to respond to the major crises of the time. The argument is made that the most disconcerting and fundamental threat to de­mocracy is the inordinate amount of power held by big globalized capital, which deprives the peoples of modern states from any say in deciding economic policy in any meaningful way, and thus from a very important lever in steering our common life and controlling our common fortune. Political philosophy must rise to the task of reconnecting with current affairs and situations, of offering concrete solutions to concrete problems, of changing its outlook to in­clude interdisciplinarity and critique.